The players are divided into teams, each representing a business unit (bu) of one and the same organisation. The game is played in rounds, called fiscal years.
Each fiscal year consists of two periods, a play period of approximately 10 min followed by an evaluation period. During the play period the bu's interact with each other and the IT manager. During the evaluation period the bu's reflect on the past fiscal year guided by the evaluator and the IT manager updates the status of the game.
 
The board of directors has decided to gain as much market share as possible. To that end each of the bu's has for target to maximise it's individual market share. During each fiscal year the bu with the largest market share wears the orange jacket. Winner of the game is the bu with the largest market share by the end of the game.
 
A bu can gain market share in a market segment by building an IT-system for that market segment in either of 3 speeds:

• defensive
• offensive
• aniticipative

Systems built anticipatively are under architecture, others are not.
 
Dynamics of the game:

• Each market segment generates a turn over of 6 shared among the bu's present.
• The earlier a bu is present in a market segment the larger it's market share (first mover principle).
• Building under architecture lowers maintenance costs but takes more time.

The IT-governance game is a game of balance between speed (market share) and architecture (maintenance costs).